Jing Yu thought asdf was joking, but after leaving that message in the chatbox, asdf seriously recalled back to the fountain and didn’t move again.
“He’s AFK?!” Jing Yu couldn’t believe it.
Four-queue meant that this group of four teamed up and entered the match up together. Even if they weren’t in the same location, they were at least using voice chat.
He’s AFK, yet his teammates aren’t cursing him out?
Still bewildered, Jing Yu saw his teammates casually say:
【Team】 hhhh (Voïa): Since our solo laner went to sleep, I’ll switch to AD build and jungle. Jungler, you go up top.
【Team】 Gold Fish not Salted Fish (Frozen Heart): ……Are you kidding me?
It’s fine if you don’t want to curse out your teammate, but why are you calmly changing battle tactics?
It’s fine if you want to change battle tactics, but what are you trying to do with these deliberately unreasonable tactics?
The support didn’t equip Smite, even if he switched to an AD build, jungling?!
Not to mention, Voïa was a pure healer-support. Even if they’re talking about changing builds, shouldn’t it be to a mage build?
For a second, Jing Yu was at a complete loss – just as he thought they could win this round, he was met with such a sudden change. It really wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
But what else could he do?
Although the circumstances weren’t optimistic, but since he was using Frozen Heart, he never considered losing!
After Jing Yu moved Frozen Heart to the top lane and cleared the creeps, he hid in the brush and looked at the players’ equipment. What he didn’t expect was that in this short amount of time, their support had already switched to an AD build, even selling the support item that prioritized the other teammates’ gold.
And the Voïa on the minimap was really floating towards the bottom jungle.
Fuck…… He was seriously going to take his jungle?
Jing Yu quickly typed as fast as he could in the message box and hit send.
【Team】 Gold Fish not Salted Fish (Frozen Heart): ADC jungle, SUPP defend bot. Don’t switch to full AD build, get equipment to boost HP recovery.
Their solo laner was AFK, and even if Jing Yu pushed top, he wouldn’t be able to tank. After all, he was using Frozen Heart, a demon whose squishiness was unsalvageable even with ten pieces of defensive equipment. Therefore, the important task of tanking could only be left to the support.
【Team】 Gold Fish not Salted Fish (Frozen Heart): Finish fast!
After sending those two words, Jing Yu moved Frozen Heart towards the bottom lane, planning to take the Demonic Disk.
The him that was so serious had no idea that, at that very moment, in a not-so-spacious training room, four people sat in front of a row of computers, chatting without a care in the world.
“Yo, this one’s pretty good under pressure~” a teen boy with dyed-blond hair smirked, tapping on his keyboard. “Even now, he’s still thinking of winning!”
“Looking at the battle situation, we really can win!” A young man two heads taller than him cut in self-righteously, “When dealing with normal players, just the four of us are enough!”
“Hey, hey, hey, who were the ones that lost the last four-versus-five match?” said a person who looked reliable and mature, but in a tone just as lighthearted as the other two.
“You were,” the blond said.
“You were,” the tall one said.
The maturing-looking man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “The two of you are really! So, I controlled four characters by myself, huh?”
The blond replied, “Two hands and two feet, that makes four exactly.”
The tall one added, “Impressive, Leafy[1]. You’re a team all by yourself.”
The man called Leafy really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry now. But before he could say anything witty back, he was interrupted by a person standing to the very side, in a tone that left no room for argument: “So noisy, all of you shut it.”
The person at the very side, sitting with his legs lazily crossed as if he owned the place, watched the computer screen in front of him through half-lidded eyes.
On the screen was 《Demon Lord》’s battlefield, but the demon he was in control of was currently standing motionlessly in their fountain.
The darkened map reflected a young, handsome face that showed a hint of drowsiness.
Even with only a brief look, his level of attractiveness easily beat everyone else in the training room. At the moment, he was calmly dragging his mouse across the minimap while holding down the left button.
The scenery on-screen changed along with his mouse movements, until it captured one snow-white shadow – Frozen Heart!
While the blond used his marksman to jungle, he snuck a glance at the person standing to the side, and after turning back to the screen, he said nonchalantly, “Fei-ge[2], what do you think? There aren’t a lot of people who can keep up with our pace.”
“Shut up, keep playing.” Like before, the tone of voice didn’t allow for disagreement.
The one who was referred to as Fei-ge spoke overbearingly, his eyes following Frozen Heart’s movements the entire time, as if carefully observing something.
At this moment in time, Frozen Heart was strolling around the enemy jungle, but he wasn’t in a hurry to jungle.
After wandering for a while, he suddenly used Smite on a jungle monster, then circled around towards the Demonic Disk, completely ignoring the jungle monster trailing behind him.
Reaching the Demonic Disk, he began to fight without any hesitation, without sending any pings to his teammates.
This seemingly nonsensical move made Qin Fei unable to hold back a short burst of laughter.
–That’s right, the person who was observing Frozen Heart was PG’s jungler, Qin Fei. The one who was known as 《Demon Lord》’s most aggressive professional player, without any competition.
He wasn’t just the most aggressive jungler, but the most aggressive professional player; it was clear how brutal his personal style was.
Frozen Heart’s actions a while back, in his opinion, was the best reflection of jungle awareness – even without vision of the enemy jungler, this Frozen Heart was able to detect the enemy’s approach and use jungle monsters to mislead him.
The enemy jungler rushed over, and seeing the jungle monster giving chase, he naturally thought that Frozen Heart retreated in the direction the monster was moving in. Who could have thought that he had sneakily circled around?
The jungle monster only followed a set amount of distance before returning to its original position. The enemy jungler didn’t think too much, chasing in the direction the jungle monster originally set out in. At the moment, he was carefully checking the nearby bushes, not knowing how much time he would waste in the brush.
And this amount of time was enough for Frozen Heart to capture the Demonic Disk.
【Team】 Gold Fish not Salted Fish (Frozen Heart): The enemy has vision on you all, don’t move.
【Team】 Gold Fish not Salted Fish (Frozen Heart): Support, ult!
Seeing these words, the tall one didn’t waver, immediately using Voïa’s ult to heal all of his teammates.
Over on Qin Fei’s screen, Frozen Heart’s health instantly increased, and at the same time, the CD for Smite had ended. Frozen Heart immediately used the skill, and then followed with an auto.
【System】Frozen Heart has conquered the Demonic Disk!
【System】Frozen Heart has activated the Demonic Disk!
An enormous round disk that gave off a black aura, under Frozen Heart’s command, was flung towards the mid lane with a “swoosh—“.
Frozen Heart sent a ping to push towers, yet he himself didn’t move towards the mid lane, but rather floated downwards to push bot.
Very quickly, the mid lane’s second tower was taken down by the mage and marksman, and the bottom second tower was about to be taken down by the creeps lead by Frozen Heart.
Under such circumstances in which they were missing their solo laner, whether it was the number of kills or the number of turrets taken down, their side was completely in the lead.
“Next will be a team fight,” Qin Fei smiled, clearly in a good mood.
“So, how’s this guy?” the blond couldn’t resist asking, “Qin-ge, how-is-he-how-is-he-how-is-he? Come on, say something~”
Qin Fei didn’t hide his thoughts, replying straightforwardly, “I wasn’t able to tell how well he can solo lane, but as a jungler, his awareness and controls are pretty good, and I didn’t see him make any mistakes. He’s able to keep up with our pace, and the last two co-ops were very nicely done, virtually without any problems. If I had to say, the one thing I’m not satisfied with…… He seems to like pushing towers more than team fighting.”
“Well, it is a tower game.” This was said by mid laner, Leafy.
“But if we’re talking about our usual gameplay~” the blond laughed devilishly, “First, we ace the other team, then we leisurely destroy their turrets under their despairing gazes, now that’s what I call a high!”
“As long as we can kill them, don’t let them escape!” the tall, broad support roared, “I’m still missing one equipment. Wait until I complete my build, I’m going to kill you all!”
The blond laughed, “Hahaha! My build’s already complete! I’m gonna kill you all right now!”
Leafy joined in, “The Dark Dragon refreshed! Come on, come on, come on! Team fight! Team fight! Gonna kill you all!”
Qin Fei: “……All of you, shut the hell up!”
This noisy group gave Qin Fei a headache, yet his gaze was fixed on the Frozen Heart onscreen the entire time, as if afraid of missing even the slightest detail.
At this moment, the blond’s marksman was clearing the creeps in the top lane, but halfway through, he bolted towards the mid lane. Where was Frozen Heart? Earlier, he had been diligently farming jungle monsters, then as if suddenly realizing something, he decisively gave up fighting a monster with only half its health left and floated to the brush near mid lane and waited.
Seeing his actions, the four in the PG training room were all startled.
“Eh? He knows we’re about to team fight?” As always, the blond was the first to speak.
Leafy immediately followed with, “Eh? He thinks we can win a team fight?”
Towards this point, the tall one said confidently, “Of course we can win! You guys have me!”
Talking as if he were the ADC……
Qin Fei didn’t say anything, but keenly watched Frozen Heart’s every movement.
Not long after, the ally creeps appeared, and their support unhesitatingly rushed under the tower to attack the mage hiding behind the tower.
The enemy mage threw out a control ability and quickly followed with an ult. Practically at the same time, the ally support gave up his shield, using it to tank the damage from the turret and ult, and then used his 1st, a weak healing ability, to raise his health.
By this time, the marksman had already followed the support under the tower, pushing the tower at the speed of light.
Almost instantly, Frozen Heart decisively used his 2nd ability, linking onto the mage and moving under the tower. However, he completely ignored the mage, instead helping the marksman destroy the tower with auto attacks before resolutely using his ult.
Frozen Heart’s ultimate did not have a large area of effect, but his positioning was excellent, astonishingly controlling all five of the enemy demons in one move.
With an opportunity as good as this, the ally marksman naturally wouldn’t let it go to waste, and he attacked madly! The support with very little blood remaining also attacked madly! The mage, even more so, randomly threw out all of his abilities, attacking madly!
Frozen Heart, needless to say, with being a squishy as the trade-off, had the highest attack on the scene!
Within a few short moments of the four players pounding on their keyboards and scrambling to attack, they aced the other team!
Jing Yu stared at the pile of corpses on the ground, listened to the series of system prompts, stared at his Frozen Heart who was almost at full health, his eyes widening disbelievingly.
What he wasn’t aware was that somewhere not far from him, a person who was AFKing and pretending to be asleep also revealed a disbelieving expression.
“This timing, this positioning……” Qin Fei’s voice shook slightly, unable to hide the excitement in his heart, “This jungler, I’ll take him!”
“It’s ‘we’ll’ take him,” the blond corrected earnestly.
“No, I’ll take him.” Leafy’s deadpanned, “As someone who controls four characters with his two hands and two feet, the only one I’m missing is a jungler!”
“Get lost!” the tall one shouted, then said contemplatively, “But, would he accept our invitation?”
Qin Fei gave a brief smile, “Hound him, harass him every few minutes, I doubt that we can’t win him over.”
“So underhanded……” Leafy submitted.
“Such an enormous task, I’ll leave it to you, Leafy.” Qin Fei patted Leafy’s back gravely, “Good luck, I believe in you.”
Leafy: “……Fuck.”
__________________________________
[1] Leafy (叶子, yè zi; lit. leaf) is the nickname PG gave their mid laner, Ye Hong (叶鸿).
[2] Qin Fei’s (秦非) teammates refer to him as Fei-ge (非哥; lit. older brother Fei) out of respect, although only the blond is younger than Qin Fei.
Note (2020-04-12): I’m really sorry about not updating in so long, some things happened back at home, and my health hasn’t been great either. Thankfully, tamagoyaki picked up the translation for this wonderful series, and her releases are so much faster and of much better quality than mine could ever be.
I may do translations of other series in the future, although this time, I’ll make sure I can stick with it before starting. Again, I’m so sorry about abandoning this project halfway (or more like 1/50th of the way…) through. Thank you to everyone who’s read or commented, and to tamagoyaki for continuing the translations, I’m really grateful that someone picked this up.
Salted Fish Translations 